1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the construction of devices for feeding individual articles or machine parts or the like to moving conveyors or assembly lines or delivery lines and in particular to a new and useful device which includes a movable conveyor located alongside of an article station with a transmitter support assembly mounted adjacent the conveyor for movement along a transmitted path substantially parallel to the conveyor and in timed relationship to the conveyor and wherein the transmitter includes a transmitter boom for picking up an article and moving it to the conveyor from the article station or vice versa and wherein the drive means for the conveyor is connected to the drive means for the transmitter and for the transmitter support so that they may all be operated in precise timed relationship.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior to the present invention it was usual to provide devices which are capable of moving articles from fixed locations onto a station or support which is moving but such devices operated to deposit such articles in a continuous time stream before the conveyors were temporarily stopped or indexed during a time at which each article is placed in position. The known machines suffer from a basic disadvantage in that the articles cannot be precisely picked up at any rate of speed selected and moved so that they are brought up to a speed commensurate with a moving conveyor and precisely positioned with respect to any spot on the conveyor which may require the article. This means that any operational heads, or other operating parts on the moving conveyor, had to be precisely oriented so as to not interfere with one of the operating parts of the device for picking up the stationary articles and placing them on the conveyor.